Lack of basic military history in fiction.

[Jay R]

I have never seen a film that acknowledged this fact - I learnt it in QI myself - and yet I don't see anyone rending their garments over it, despite it being as ahistorical as other examples in this thread.

GW

In The Shootist, John Wayne explains this to Ron Howard.
Wayne: Put five slugs into that tree.
Howard: Why not six?
Wayne: Keep your hammer on an empty chamber, for safety.
Howard: Unless you're goin' after somebody?
Wayne: Well, load six if your insides tells you to.

[Jay R]

That's probably their hidden superpower: zombies irradiate invisible mental waves that force living people (usually smarter than a brainless corpse) to act in a foolish way.

My experience is that invisible mental waves aren't usually necessary to make people act foolishly.

[Killer Angel]

My experience is that invisible mental waves aren't usually necessary to make people act foolishly.

eh, I cannot disagree...

[Sapphire Guard]

But not all of the people, all of the time, which is what is needed for most zombie apocalypses to gain traction.

[Traab]

But not all of the people, all of the time, which is what is needed for most zombie apocalypses to gain traction.

Meh, panic is a common thing. Say someone collapses and dies of a heart attack during the boston marathon. They pop back up as a zombie surrounded by people trying to help and he starts biting everyone. There is a major panic, those people start turning and biting and suddenly its a riot. The people nearby are trying to avoid being bitten, the ones further back dont know whats going on exactly. By the time its identified as a zombie outbreak there could be hundreds spreading out into the tightly packed crowd with noone knowing what to do. By the time a response is made, there could be thousands spreading all over boston as those who arent yet aware of the outbreak get attacked. Long term a zombie outbreak isnt going to last, but I can see it getting going fairly easily. And thats just a patient zero setup. If we go night of the living dead where literally everyone dead rises as zombies at the same time, we now have a world wide outbreak that again will take time to identify and bring under control. No the world still wont end and society still wont crumble but there will probably be a few days of high death tolls before its mostly eradicated.

[Sapphire Guard]

It's very rare that they turn that quickly. And even so, you don't need to know what zombies are to want to avoid being bitten by somebody. People will defend themselves, the zombies won't have it all their own way. So, the first person turns, tries to bite his neighbours, gets restrained, any victims feel sick and go to the hospital. They turn, bite, get restrained. Whoever does the restraining feel sick and turn, hours later. They in turn get restrained, the hospital notices the trend and goes into quarantine or restrains the bitten on principles. Even if that chain fails, the victims hit dozens tops, because you don't have to know what a zombie is to want to avoid being bitten.

If we go night of the living dead we have decent numbers of disproportionately old, sick, frail, and injured people that can't navigate locked doors, are likely to be either widely spread or securely locked in mortuaries or hospitals. There will still be casualties, but hordes either don't happen or get crushed quickly. That's why most stories skip the start of the outbreak, because it's so hard to write convincingly.

[Mechalich]

A 'realistic' zombie outbreak is just a peculiar form of pandemic and would in some sense actually be easier to contain, since you can't shoot superflu in the head. Maximum damage occurs if the outbreak starts in a highly dense and also highly impoverished area with limited response capabilities, but also the capability to widely jump borders via air travel. So the worst location is probably something like Mumbai. Regardless, the outbreak should run its course in a matters of weeks or months, since the zombies would be subject to both break down or rot and also to starvation, and in the absence of abundant human populations to spread it to fortified regions could easily sustain themselves.

Most long running zombie franchises have magical immortal zombies that never suffer any damage and need no sustenance - Resident Evil is fairly up front about this, refreshingly.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

A 'realistic' zombie outbreak is just a peculiar form of pandemic and would in some sense actually be easier to contain, since you can't shoot superflu in the head.

(link)

GW

[Anonymouswizard]

Most long running zombie franchises have magical immortal zombies that never suffer any damage and need no sustenance - Resident Evil is fairly up front about this, refreshingly.

Resident Evil (the games) have a specific level of zombie toughness, they threaten the city but not the world. They're tough enough to stay around, but not enough that sufficiently prepared people can't defeat them. Which is nice, after a while people actually start being able to deal with zombies without nuking the town.

[Jay R]

But not all of the people, all of the time, which is what is needed for most zombie apocalypses to gain traction.

Actually, you only need one movie-full of people, panicking for two hours, to generate the behavior we're complaining about.

[Tyndmyr]

Resident Evil (the games) have a specific level of zombie toughness, they threaten the city but not the world. They're tough enough to stay around, but not enough that sufficiently prepared people can't defeat them. Which is nice, after a while people actually start being able to deal with zombies without nuking the town.

They also have special undead, which significantly pumps up the threat level from shamblers. Shamblers only, well, that's a great deal easier to defend against. Throwing the occasional crazily mutated whatever into the mix allows the protaganists to take reasonable precautions, yet still be in danger without being offensively stupid.

[Anonymouswizard]

They also have special undead, which significantly pumps up the threat level from shamblers. Shamblers only, well, that's a great deal easier to defend against. Throwing the occasional crazily mutated whatever into the mix allows the protaganists to take reasonable precautions, yet still be in danger without being offensively stupid.

Even the basic shamblers in the older games were dangerous enough that if you release a couple into a crowd they could in theory turn the whole crowd in a panic. They're not that hard to beat if you have a firearm, but in a crowd it would be easy for a zombie to take you down between seeing them and drawing your weapon (assuming this is America and you have them). Once they've hit a crowd they'll then have enough specials to actually be a threat.

My point was though that, although RE zombies are explicitly tough enough to actually be a credible threat, while weak enough that they're not the end of the world.

[Tvtyrant]

Sadly, they usually end eating people that sleep in tents, or that wander alone, or that wait too much while the slow zombies crawl toward them...

That's probably their hidden superpower: zombies irradiate invisible mental waves that force living people (usually smarter than a brainless corpse) to act in a foolish way.

This is one of the few cases where the walking dead is actually good. Everyone is already infected by the zombie virus, it only turns you once you die. However it is heavily implied the virus itself inhibits rational behavior, which is why so many people ended up dead.

[Bohandas]

Of course fights also have to take place in ranges of like a couple dozen feet....as fighting someone like a mile away is not dramatic.

And the one battle that comes to mind that does occur at enormous range is the final showdown in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, in which the combatants are on an even more enormous scale (there's one scene where the mechs are on opposite sides of a galaxy but both mechs are the size of a galaxy; and I think they get even vigger before it ends)

[Foeofthelance]

Why cannot anyone in a zombie movie discover some sort of protective covering that is resistant to human teeth?

Such stories do exist!

Islands of Rage and Hope, Chapter 17

Faith had, meanwhile, strolled up the road with PFC Funk.

“Zombies cannot even begin to harm you until they are at arm’s length, PFC,” Faith said. She had her radio “open” deliberately this time. “Which was why you wait until they’re close, generally, to fire. You hit them that way and you can be sure that they are zombies and not survivors or fellow Marines.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Marine said nervously.

And in this gear, they can’t get to you at all,” Faith said. “Last but not least, they are not the walking dead. Are they Corporal Douglas?”

“No, ma’am,” Derk yelled.

“So they can be killed in various ways that don’t require shooting them in the head,” Faith said. “Unless you’re using a ---- Barbie gun. In which case…well…check fire, check fire, check fire,” she shouted just to be sure.

She’d heard the zombie closing in the darkness. She let it charge and slam into her from behind. She flipped it across her shoulder and onto the ground, then let it have her left arm to bite.

“Notice that he’s not gaining an inch,” Faith said, drawing her kukri. “Human teeth cannot penetrate this bunker gear. And…” she reached across his arms and chopped downward. There was a spray of arterial blood. “They are not hard to kill."

[Traab]

Monster Hunter International does something similar. Though as the name suggests, they kill way more than just zombies. But they are dressed in high end body armor at all times and even have helmets to protect their faces from bitey buggers of all types. Im pretty sure you would have to be buried under a swarm of zombies before being in any real danger. And considering the sheer number of guns and hacking weapons (including kukiris) they all carry, well, thats not often an issue with them. VAMPIRES now, thats different, those sucker (hur hur) are STRONG. Even a newborn can rip your head off. The older ones can hurl APCs and dodge machine gun fire at a level that would make agent smith green with envy. So kevlar? Not a big help.

[Bohandas]

Most long running zombie franchises have magical immortal zombies that never suffer any damage and need no sustenance - Resident Evil is fairly up front about this, refreshingly.

The zombies from Quake as well. They could only be defeated by blowing them up, which didn't actually destroy them, it just blew all their parts apart so they couldn't move (this was also similar to a plot point from the first 3 Evil Dead movies, wherein people and corpses posessed by kandarian demons could only be stopped through bodily dismemberment)